curly!

We have had rain and more rain lately. Cloudy skies and no sun seem to be the new norm. But, just a mere hour away, in Ohio, the weather has been much nicer! So I went down to help Beth get her four year old, Curly, started with driving. He has only been hooked a few times in a team and never to a cart.

Meet Curly!

We hooked Curly to the sled with Art.

Skylar is a sled dog

Curly was pretty amazing! Beth put a great foundation on him and he was not bothered by anything. Curly had to concentrate a lot more with the sled because it was much harder to pull and he had to be told to keep up with Art, but overall he was great! After a couple laps we let them rest in the shade.

Then we hooked Curly and Art up to some wheels. He was expecting it to be much harder to pull, but it was pretty easy for him. Curly thought he was on a sightseeing tour around the property. His ears were forward and he was looking at everything. So different from Shy, whose ears are almost always back on the driver, listening for what is wanted next.

Curly still has a lot to learn, but it seems that he has a good head on his shoulders. See his turns. . .too funny! We didn't work him long because we could see that his young brain was getting tired. And Art was getting a bit frustrated with the him, too.

Good ponies

A couple days later, I went down to Ohio again. We hooked Curly and Art together on the forecart and away we went. Once we started trotting, we could tell Curly was much more focused on Beth and less on the scenery. All was good until Curly decided to get a little spunky. . . I am pretty sure the horse conversation between Art and Curly went like this:

Curly: Weeeee! We are going fast! I'm a rabbit!

Art: Get your feet on the ground.

Curly: No! I can leap so high! Let's go faster now!

Art: Stop it. You are acting childish. I am not letting you go anywhere and since we are hooked you are stuck.

Curly: But leaps. . . (one more time with all four off the floor). Fine.

Art: Good, now get back to work. This is serious business. 

Gotta love those blonde butts

I admit, it was a little scary, but definitely not heart pounding scary. Beth and Art held it together while Curly was leaping around. He really did have all hooves off the ground about three times. But after that, he was back to business. 

We ran into one more hairy situation in the woods. We couldn't decide which way we wanted to go, which gave Curly too much time to think of which way he did not want to go. He was doing one thing and Art was doing what was being asked of him, but then got frustrated because Curly was doing what he wanted. Curly ended up with a back leg over the tongue. That did not bother him at all. Just like it doesn't bother him to bang into the tongue when he turns gee. I got out and help the horses while Beth fixed them, then we went on our way. No more troubles. 

Bless Art's Haflinger heart for putting up with green drivers and green horses. He is such a good horse. And Curly was quite amazing for his first couple drives out. Beth should be really proud of all the work she put in on him. 

Two tired ponies!

After we got done, Beth put the cart on Curly so he could feel the shafts on his sides. He could have cared less, even when he was wiggling around. He was also a very tired pony!

I braided his forelock. 

I had a really fun long weekend helping ponies, boating, and hanging with friends. I am wishing I didn't have to go to work. . . what did you do this weekend?

I had to share this, too! This is Leah and Rambo. Leah is using Haflinger acrobatics to get blades of grass.